Title

Layout - Severe Restrictions or is it me?

Post

I am trying to create a calendar type look to my layout object. Therefore the record behaviour doesn't fall into the columnar or list layout but a mixture of both. Is this possible or am I expecting to much?

Having tried a number of other things which I am used to doing in Access with ease and not finding the equivalent, is it me or is are layouts really not that flexible?

Being new to Filemaker I did pop in and see the guys at Filemaker in Bourne End, as I happened upon them, and when I said what I was used to working with they started to look at me through slitty eyes. Am I just having teething pains or is Filemaker not as good as Access and I should just accept it?

bcooney - wow! Just what a beginner needs, inspiration. I did actually manage to achieve what I wanted by:

Created first table containing the WeekNo and RoomNo

Created tables for each day of week, each table having the time slots covering the two week period I need and a booked field.

Created a relationship between each day of the week and the first table with WeekNo and RoomNo as the keys

Set up layout based on the first table and added portals for each day of the week for; the first portal displaying the time slot field

Headed up each portal with the relevant day of the week using the text label thing and now I have exactly what I wanted. Layout displays records for a particular Week (Current or Coming) by Room No and I can see whether it has been booked out or not - it looks exactly like a calendar!

Thanks for the calendar suggestions but the problem with the traditional calendar/appointments thing is that it is 2 dimensional. I need an extra dimension to be able to display music lessons for each room for each day. In your typical 2-D I could have got one room but then not create any unique entries for the other rooms where the lessons were on the same day at the same time.

I was originally trying to persuade my Music Teacher, the guy I am writing the database for, to do it in SQL DB, as that is where I am most profficient. However, being 'creative' he preferred the MAC solution. And, in some respects, I quite like it...I was just daunted by the'macro' approach to scripting, which is still a bit clunky for me....but I could yet be converted!

Thanks everyone, no doubt you will be hearing more from the two-week old Filemaker 11.0 developer!